"Art & Science: The Two Cultures Converging"December 1-3 2017, ManhattanHosted in partnership with The Helix Center

"Art & Science: The Two Cultures Converging" was a three day SciArt conference held in partnership with The Helix Center on December 1-3, 2017.

This conference brought together over 36 local innovative experts in the fields of science, art, technology, and education who engaged in a series of roundtable discussions on (1) science-art collaboration, (2) STEAM and the future of education, and (3) the multi-directional relationship between science, art, and society. Each of these topics were specifically addressed two times, creating six roundtables total, with unique participants in each round who built off of the previous conversations of all roundtables. The format of spontaneous and generative dialogue was chosen with the aim to evolve a collective conversation over the course of three days, in attempts to gain intellectual progress on the most difficult, interesting, novel, and complex challenges we face as cross-, multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary practitioners.

What can art-science-tech collaborations result in? How do we form new educational models for the 21st century? How do we bridge the gulf between art and science, and between art, science, and society? These are only some of the questions that were addressed by the participants and active audience members.

As these topics are global in reach, all roundtable discussions were livestreamed and recorded.

...I had the idea for this weekend about a year and a half ago after attending a conference which was wonderful but far too short on the time allowed for spontaneous conversation - what we’re going to do here this weekend is a bit different than your typical conference. With an emphasis on evolving a collective dialogue over three days, we’ve cut out prescripted presentations entirely and invited innovative local leaders in the science, art, technology, and education realms to share their current work, thoughts on issues big and small, approaches and solutions to outstanding problems, and questions about where we are, and where we want to be, in the worlds of art and science, and the points at which they converge.

The meaningful interactions of art, science, and technology in culture, industry, and education is well established - we’re not here to justify this interaction, it speaks for itself. Rather, this weekend over the course of six roundtable discussions on three central topics, we will cover questions such as: What are the potentials of science-art collaboration beyond art about science? How do we form new educational models for the 21st century? How can we repair, and build upon, the multi-directional relationship between science, art and society?​I am so grateful to have found the perfect partner for this weekend - The Helix Center. Helix’s motto urges us to engage in “an unhurried search for wisdom,” and it is high time to evolve these cross-disciplinary conversations, guided by wisdom, to the next levels.

Opening remarks, and "Science-Art Collaboration Roundtable #1":

Participants:​

Mark Rosin

Shane Mayak

Tyler Volk

Noah Hutton

Jame McCray

Monica Aiello

"STEAM & the Future of Education Roundtable #1":

Participants:​

Roger Malina

Julia Buntaine

Elizabeth Waters

Tarah Rhoda

Alana Quinn

Tyler Aiello

"Science, Art, & Society Roundtable #1":

Participants:

Erik Hoel

Alana Quinn

Ben Lillie

David Grinspoon

Elizabeth Demaray

​Stuart Firestein

"Science-Art Collaboration Roundtable #2":

Participants:

Daniel Kohn

Edgar Choureiri

Tega Brain

Patricia Olynyk

Karen Ingram

Alexis Gambis

"STEAM & the Future of Education Roundtable #2":

Participants:

Harvey Seifter

Jill Bargonetti

Paul Fry

Cynthia Pannucci

Daniel Grushkin

Ellen Levy

"Science, Art, & Society Roundtable #2":

Participants:

Suzanne Anker

Daniel Hill

Amelia Amon

Paul Browde

Nancy Princenthal

Farzad Mahootian

Full conference Wordle by Kaye Savage.

Active partners & collaborators:

SciArt Center of New York is based in and around New York City, New York.Logo design by Justin Mendonca